[512] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Cost of Internet Access
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (MAYEJOH@karl.iit.edu)
Thu Jun 18 16:04:13 1992
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1992 13:17:20 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: MAYEJOH@karl.iit.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Ed Spodick writes...
"The point is that I do not feel that the sweat and tears of the volunteers
who helped build the Internet into something which has become well-nigh
indispensable to educators throughout the country should be so
readily dismissed in favor of
'professionals.'"
In the case of CICnet, the "professionals" ARE the volunteers that
built the Internet at their respective institution. It was a natural
to elevate the responsibility to an entity that was not closely tied with
any of the original universities so as to achieve access for anyone
(universities, public libraries, governmental bodies, etc) and not be
subject to the vagaries of one university's budget swings.
The Internet is maturing which inevitably means commericalization,
professionalization and several other "ations" that herald the end
of the cowboy network era. It's time for fences and homesteads.
This doesn't mean that there aren't any more frontiers, it means
that for the users, the struggle is just beginning.
John Mayer Chicago-Kent College of law
